This Damned Country!: Nyerere's Forgotten Speech

FaizaFoxy said:
Na kuna wanaomchukia kwa kuiua nchi, kutesa watu na kushindwa kabisa kuongoza, duhh, tazama wakati wake, sisi tulikuwa wapi na wenzetu wa Kenya walikuwa wapi?
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Angeiua NCHI usingeikuta wala usingekuwepo. Nchi inauwawa sasa. Aliacha mashirika ya UMMA zaidi ya 400 mikononi mwa wazawa. Karibu yote hayapo. AJIRA ni tatizo sasa. Aliacha migodi yote ikiwa bikira kabisa. Sasa tunaachiwa mashimo. Hakuna tunachoambulia. Aliacha TANZANIA ni moja. Sasa ZAnzibar ni NCHI na mipaka yake. Hakuacha tajiri mzawa. SAsa wapo. Bila kujali utajiri wanaupataje. Aliacha watu wanasoma bila mikopo na shule za umma zikiwa na hadhi ya aina yake. Sasa watoto wetu wakifaulu kwenda shule za UMMA wanalia.
Faiza ondoa kidogo hako kautando kwenye akili yako. Utayaona mengi mazuri ya Mwalimu. Kenya hawako mbali na sisi. Na wala kwa akili timamu hauwezi kutamani tuwe kama Kenya isipokuwa kwa KATIBA yao mpya.
 
NYERERE 1985......VYAMA VINGI 1992....!
Tufafanulie kidogo ili tuwe pamoja
 
Jasusi said:
Nyambala,
You want me to answer your question? Nipe muda. Unamkumbuka Yesu? Hata wale mitume wake waliokuwa naye muda wote hawakumwelewa wakati wote.
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Nyie watu mbona mna akili hivi! This is very nutritious BRAIN FOOD!!
 

Mkuu unajua hili ni tatizo la alikosomea, haelewi tofauti ya maandika yenye authority na yasiyo nayo!!!
 
Faiza,
Nilimaliza kidato cha sita enzi hizo za Mwalimu, ajira ilikuwa inanisubiri. Haikuwa ya kutafuta. Watanzania sote kwa ujumla wetu tulikuwa hohehahe. Sasa hivi wapo wanaokula na kusaza na wengine wanatutapikia miguuni kabisa. Kuna WATANZANIA sasa hata mlo mmoja kwa siku ni shughuli pevu. Haujui hata mashirika ya UMMA yalisaidia nini? Unakifahamu kitega uchumi chochote cha Mwalimu au mwanaye hapa nchini?
 
Bantugbro said:
As usual, Rashid the henchman was the one to do the dirty work.....!!!
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Na ndio maana alifanya kazi na Mwalimu hadi mwisho. Mtu pekee kuwa hivo kwa miaka yote ya utawala wa Mwalimu tangu uhuru. Aliachiwa Nchi na Mwalimu na baadaye akamrudishia. Jaribuni sasa muone.
 
Zanaki said:
kwa kutumia mkono wako wa kulia, hesabu ni nchi ngapi Africa zilikua na vyama vingi, kabla ya 1990.
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Sawa, hivyo unakubali kwamba Nyerere alikandamiza uwingi wa kisiasa lakini hoja yako ni kwamba hakuwa peke yake. Sitakai.

Kwa hiyo alikuwa na kina Bokassa, Banda, Obote, Babangida, Compaore, Samuel Doe, Mobute, n.k, n.k

Nakubali.
 
Taso said:
Sawa, hivyo unakubali kwamba Nyerere alikandamiza uwingi wa kisiasa lakini hoja yako ni kwamba hakuwa peke yake. Sitakai.

Kwa hiyo alikuwa na kina Bokassa, Banda, Obote, Babangida, Compaore, Samuel Doe, Mobute, n.k, n.k

Nakubali.
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Mobutu hadi anaondolewa madarakani kulikuwa vyama vya siasa zaidi ya 100 pale Zaire. Wengine wote uloowataja isipokuwa Banda (Rais wa Maisha) na Obote ( Uganda ilikuwa na vyama vingi) walikuwa wanajeshi. Unathubutu kumweka Mwalimu kundi hilo kweli? Uko mbali mno na ukweli na uhalisia wa mambo ya nchi hii. Uko huru sana kwa maoni yako haya.
 
​

In some of my writings I have alluded to one of the most fiery, provocative and incredibly poignant speech by Nyerere to the Tanzanian educated youth. It is one of the few speeches that remains forgotten. As the nation wrestles with the question of public spending, entitlements of the educated ruling class (part of which is corrupt) and the burden this government has put on the poor peasants (as Nyerere would call them) I have found an urge to share this speech with you just to make us think where we are coming from and why we are here. A bunch of those students who marched to the State House have found their thrones at the helm of power in the past 10 to 15 years. They have never changed.

In the first part, a group of university students (almost 400 of them) from DUC (before it became UDSM) marched to the Statehouse protesting the National Service arrangement which they considered to be exploitative in nature. Without fear or excuses Nyerere and his Cabinet were prepared to meet them. Force was not used to stop them.

The incident is recorded in “We Must Run, While They Walk - a book by William Edgett Smith” Digital transcription is mine; all italics and brackets original.
Here is the first part of what happened…

IN OCTOBER 1966, a few months after Nyerere’s trip to Tabora, a group of four hundred students, most them from Dar-es-Salaam University College, marched to State House. They were protesting against a new law which required that they spend two years in the National Service, and be paid roughly 40 percent of what they would earn as university graduates in civilian life.

They were especially angry at Vice-President Rashidi Kawawa, the minister in charge of the National Service program, and carried signs bearing such messages as TO HELL WITH KAWAWA AND HIS SCHEME and the - ultimate insult- LIFE DURING COLONIAL DAYS WAS BETTER.

At the steps of State House, they were met by Nyerere, Kawawa and most members of the Cabinet, and their spokesman proceeded to deliver their “ultimatum” in a high pitched twang. The Government, he declared, was trying to throw “the burden of financing this extensive scheme on the shoulders of young and helpless students,” and he offered a compromise: “either we be paid full rights of earning, or else all those in the high-income brackets should also be in that category which could be interpreted as a form of sacrifice rather than a form of exploitation.”

In other words, if university graduates were expected to spend two years in the National Service at 40 percent of their civilian pay, government officials should make sacrifices too. “Therefore, Your Excellency, unless the terms of reference and the attitude of our leaders toward students change, we shall not accept National Service in spirit. Let our bodies go, but or should will remain outside the scheme” - wild applause - “and the battle between the political elite and the educated elite will perpetually continue. Thank you.”

Nyerere began to speak in a calm, almost perfunctory manner. “I did, I have understood your protest. It is not really addressed to the Second Vice-President, it is addressed to the Government, we have got your message. I understand it, I want to see if I can explain a little, I want to be absolutely clear that what we have said to your leaders has got to you.

“This matter did not start yesterday. It is the intention of the government that National Service should not merely be for ex-primary [school graduates] or for un-employed; it is national service. It should include secondary [school graduates], and university graduates, and all others. We asked, ‘at what point in the life of a youth, at what particular point, do we ask him to enter National Service? Do we take him before he finishes his education or after?’

“So wee decided no” - his voice was cracking a bit now - “you don’t cut his education, you don’t interfere with it, you wait until he has completed his education. We made that decision. I think it was an extremely considerate decision on the part of the government. Very considerate. Very considerate. But it had some definite implications. If you wait until a student has finished his education, his training as a teacher, the he has certain expectations. If he is trained to be a teacher, his salary will - what is it? Seven hundred and sixteen pounds a year? Ah, seven hundred and sixteen plus seventy six. This is his salary, seven hundred and ninety two pounds. This teacher, he has in mind: ‘At the end of my education, I get seven hundred and ninety two pounds.’ This is his expectation. So, if you wait until he completes his training as a teacher you have allowed him to think, ‘Seven hundred and ninety two pounds is my right.’ As your spokesman said, ‘my full right’” He rolled the r. “My full rrrright.

“We made other mistakes. We said, ‘Treat them differently. Count as National Service the work they do as teachers or doctors or engineers. A student has been trained as a teacher; very well, let him go into the classroom. If he is a doctor, let him go to the ward, let him go to Muhimbili hospital, count that as National Service.’

“Obviously, if we had taken you people and said, ‘OK, don’t let them finish their education yet, let them complete their National Service first, ‘ then you would not be talking to us, or to the Vice President, asking him to resign. You would not be talking about forty percent. Forty percent of what? You would not have salaries. I mean, really the easiest way to get of this damned forty percent rubbish is to ask you people to do National Service before you go to university. That’s all.

“Now, I explained this forty-percent business ages ago. Since then we have changed it. We’ve changed the damned thing. We have said, ‘We guarantee a minimum wage - the government minimum wage in Dar-es-Salaam; no National Service person will be getting less than one hundred and eight pounds a year.’ In terms of the teacher, you knock off one hundred and eight pounds from the seven hundred and ninety-two pounds, and then take fort percent of the rest, and you add that together, and I am told this comes to three hundred and eighty-one pounds. Did you also say, Mr. Vice-President, ‘Free housing’? And were you also saying, ‘No direct taxation’? Were you really saying this? That on an income of three hundred and eighty-one pounds, no taxation?

“This is rubbish, when we are talking about National Service. The nation says to its youth, ‘We want your service.’ and the youth does not then turn the nation and say, ‘For how much?’ The youth simply says ‘Where? What to do?’ This is the meaning of National Service.”

Calmly, again: “Now, I have accepted your ultimatum. And I can assure you I’m going to force nobody. You are right, your bodies would be there, your spirit wouldn’t be there, you are right. I take nobody into the National Service whose spirit is not in it. Nobody! Absolutely nobody!” Hesitant applause.

“It’s not a prison, you know. I’m not going to get anybody there who thinks it is a prison camp, no one! But nevertheless it will remain compulsory for everybody who is going to enter government service. So you make your choice. I’m not going to spend public money to educate anybody who says, ‘National Service is a prison camp.’ No” - very quietly now - “I won’t have this. I have accepted your ultimatum”.

After a long pause he began again, chopping out every word in fury. “You are right when talk about salaries. Our salaries are too high. You want me to cut them?” Fairly strong applause. “Two years? I’m not talking about two years. I’m not building this country for two years. I’m willing to slash salaries. Do you want me to start with mine? Yes! I’ll slash mine” Cries of “No!” could be heard. “I’ll slash by twenty percent, as from this hour. Twenty percent. I slash my salary. This damned country! The salaries are too high! Too high for Tanzania!

“My salary! Do you know what my salary is? Five Thousand damned shillings a month! Five thousand damned shillings in a poor country! The poor man who gets two hundred shillings a month - do you know how long it’s going to take him to earn my damned salary? Twenty-five years! It’s going to take the poor man in this country, who earns two hundred shillings a month, twenty-five years to earn what I earn in a year.

“The damned salaries! These are salaries which build this kind of attitude in the educated people, all of them! All of them! Me and you! We belong to a class of exploiters! I belong to your class! Where I think three hundred and eight pounds a yeas is a prison camp! Is forced labor! We belong to this damned exploiting class on top. Is this the country we fought for? Is this what we worked for? In order to maintain a class of exploiters on top?

“I agree with you! We are paying too much! Everybody in this damned country is paid too much- except the poor peasant. I’ll slash the salaries! I agree with you! I’m glad you’re so concerned about this country! Forced labor? Where do we get this language? The day I can give every worker of Tanzania three hundred and eighty pounds, we will have worked a revolution that has not been worked anywhere in Africa. The day that I succeed in giving everybody in this damned country three hundred pounds, we shall have worked a terrific revolution; we could stand all of us on top of Kilimanjaro and proclaim the Tanzanian revolution!

“Forced labor! Go, go in the classroom, go and don’t teach. This we shall county as National Service for three hundred and eighty pounds a year. You are right salaries are too high. Everybody in this country is demanding a pound of flesh. Everybody except the poor peasant. How can he demand it? He doesn’t know the language. Even in his own language he can’t speak of forced labor. What kind of country are we building?” He fairly screeched the words.

“I have accepted what you said. And I am going to revise salaries permanently. And as for you, I am asking you to go home. I’m asking all of you to go home. Rashid! You are responsible to see that they go home.”

There was mild applause, presumably from those students who didn’t realize what had happened. He expelled them, three hundred and ninety three in all and sent them home
 
Taso said:
...
...Angewezaje wakati yeye alipokuw madarakani miaka 27 alishindwa? Alivifuta vyama vingi!
...
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https://www.jamiiforums.com/jukwaa-...ailure-some-say-yes-he-did-4.html#post2113282

 

Akitowe wapi and he failed economically? unauliza jibu?
 
Sasa hebu isomeni hiyo sppech aliobandika mkjj halafu m-judge wenyewe, alikuwa anamawazo finyu kweli kweli, wakati watu wanapigania kipato kikubwa yeye anapigania kipato kidogo. So pessimist.
 
FaizaFoxy said:
Akitowe wapi and he failed economically? unauliza jibu?
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Yes he did not want to fail his people by taking their lands and give it to foreign investors or rich people; he wanted his people to understand the benefit of the land they have and treasure...

Right now we gave our land and still we are economically dwarf... we gave away our mines and land we sold our freedom...
 
Wapo wengine wanadiriki kusema kuwa Mwalim Nyerere ndie aliye ruhusu vyama vingi, wakati yeye na serikali yake ya TANU wakishirikiana na Afro Shirazi Party ndio walivipiga marufuku vyama vingi. Kupenda kweli maradhi.
 
FaizaFoxy said:
Sasa hebu isomeni hiyo sppech aliobandika mkjj halafu m-judge wenyewe, alikuwa anamawazo finyu kweli kweli, wakati watu wanapigania kipato kikubwa yeye anapigania kipato kidogo. So pessimist.
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Hapo kwenye red kutoka failure hadi pessimist amepanda cheo au ameshuka?
 
X-PASTER said:
Wapo wengine wanadiriki kusema kuwa Mwalim Nyerere ndie aliye ruhusu vyama vingi, wakati yeye na serikali yake ya TANU wakishirikiana na Afro Shirazi Party ndio walivipiga marufuku vyama vingi. Kupenda kweli maradhi.
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Nani aliruhusu vyama vingi wakati 80 percent ya Watanzania walivikataa walitaka kuendelea na chama kimoja? Kama demokrasia ni mawazo ya watu wengi kukubaliwa kwanini mawazo ya wengi hayakukubaliwa huoni kuwa kwa kukubali vyama vingi tumejikuta kwenye matatizo la heri tungebakia kwenye chama kimoja kama majority ya wananchi walivyotaka? Kwanini tuliingia kwenye vyama vingi wakati sauti ya wengi ilikuwa ni chama kimoja?
 
Mwenye majibu mazuri kwa swali lako ni Rais Mstaafu Alhaj Ali Hassan Mwinyi na Tume iliyokuwa chini ya Jaji Francis Nyalali.

__________
Nakumbuka uchaguzi wa kwanza baada ya kurudishwa kwa mfumo wa vyama vingi wa mwaka 1995. Mkapa alishinda kwa kupata asilimia 61.82
 

Nakumbuka Kikwete alishinda kwa asilimia 80!
 
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